Reverse Order
TMBG State Theatre Ithaca NY 10/1/09 (behind the scenes) John Linnell: We started off with Meet the Elements which BlueCanary was very excited about. They've played it at a few shows this fall but I hadn't seen it yet. After the song Flans said he wasn't used to playing for a seated audience and invited everyone to the stage. They got a spot right in front of Dan on the right. He also said that since this was the first show on a new tour they would be playing four or five songs for the first time for a paying audience. We really only debuted one song since the rest had been played elsewhere in September but they were played at free shows so I guess that is what he meant. John Flansburgh: I introduced the next song as being from their least commercially successful effort which means - Venue Songs! We did Los Angeles. Ralph Carney also came to the stage for this one. He played various different saxaphones, a clarinet and an instrument of his own design that Flans called The Thing, throughout the show.He also had maracas shaped like an apple and a banana. John Linnell: Next up, an exciting first for me, Youth Culture Killed My Dog. We are digging into the oldies for this tour and I ain't complaining. At the end of the song Flans said we had reached the animal portion of the show and they did My Brother The Ape. BlueCanary commented that this new album was for older children and was thus also more appropriate for adults. He keeps being confused when I hear them play this live (they did it on the radio before this) because I always sing "well, I got the information, you sent to everyone" and he could swear on the album he says invitation. Whatever. Ralph Carney: Birdhouse appeared early. BlueCanary guesses they are prepping for their Flood run where it kicks things off. It was very ahrd to jump during Clap Your Hands because they were all packed in so tight around the stage. They managed. John Linnell: Another first for both my boyfriend and him, Where Your Eyes Don't Go! We did four songs from Lincoln which may be a record. Then into Mono Puff territory with Unsupervised. Dan Miller: Before Seven, Flans said that they were just as surprised as they were about their Grammy win and that the standards must have gone down. He also said he was surprised they had been allowed to make an educational album much be rewarded for it. They had to get the audience going on the "we want cake" chants. We were obviously all Seven novices, at least on our side, but they caught on quick. John Flansburgh: At the end of Hearing Aid they set off the new confetti canon. It is much bigger and has a fan with it that blows the confetti out. It just kept blowing and blowing a ridiculous amount of confetti. A lot of it ended up in piles in the stage. It did manage to travel all the way across the crowd and onto us though. We seemed a little disappointed in it's performance and said this was they first time we had hooked it up. Marty Beller: I switched to the electric drum kit for James K. Polk which oddly had no confetti even though they had their small canon hooked up too.Ralph played The Thing during the bridge to imitate the singing saw. It's a mouth piece with a straight piece attached on the bottom and a curved piece on the top that can be pressed to different degrees to make the notes. It is pretty cool and makes a sound that is a cross between a clarinet and a kazoo. Danny Weinkauf: Then we launched The Lab portion of the show mentioned in the recent mailer. They had the bass drum from the electric kit set up on top of a big box behind Marty. It had a camera mounted on top of it that projected on a screen behind the drum and Dan's keyboard. The Johns debated for a minute about how they were going to introduce the segment and then decided to just go for it with no intro. They both stood partially hidden behind the drum and donned sock-like hand puppets that were very cute. The puppets were projected on the screen so everyone could see them. Then we proceeded to sing Shoehorn with Teeth with the puppets. Marty stood center stage with a board with three service bells screwed to it and rang they periodically and very seriously. I didn't play on this one and reappeared from backstage towards the end of the song and jumped in the air bringing his hand down as if he was ringing the bell, being much sillier than Marty who never even cracked a smile. Between that and the puppets, the whole thing was hysterical.What BlueCanary would not have given for my camera! Dan Miller: At the end of the song Linnell said he felt they should attempt a duet with the puppets ans suggested Maybe I Know. Flans asked if he could play it on the keyboard while doing the puppet and Linnell wasn't sure. Flans suggested something else which Linnell was even less confident about then Linnell said "how about this" and started To All The Girls I Loved Before which Fans joined in on. Between verses Linnell sang a line about having trouble playing the keyboard and moving the puppet mouth at the same time. Flans seemed to go further through the song than Linnell had intended to. They had also swung the camera around to show the audience on the screen while they were singing. Flans called an end to the segment after the song though apparently, according to the setlist it was supposed to go several songs longer. John Flansburgh: I pulled out a chair and an acoustic guitar for the next song and talked about how our new album discusses evolution and the Big Bang and except for some "haters" on YouTube there hasn't been a lot of controvercy. And yet every time they do an interview the reporter says, "wow, evolution, that's controvercial." I then attempted to start Science Is Real which I has to sit down to play. I stopped it almost immediately and declared a do-over. I had to start it twice more before he got it. There was some feedback coming off of one of the instruments so the song didn't sound great but it was the only legit debut of the show. Marty Beller: Flans didn't give the audience any instructions on Drink! So the audience reply was a little weak but there were a few vetrans who participated. John Flansburgh: They did WDTSS? in the original slow version with my friend Linnell doing the spoken part. He stuck with the real words because he couldn't think of anything good after a moments thought. Marty did some good drum banging to accentuate his words. John Linnell: Why Does the Sun Really Shine? had a shorter than usual but otherwise typical introduction. Danny Weinkauf: Flans started out Spider with his mic stand raised upsidedown in the air. Somewhere right in this batch of songs Marty switched back to the regular drums but he doesn't remember exactly where. It was a real shame cameras weren't allowed as he could have finally gotten some great pictures of him since he was right in front of me on the electric. Ralph Carney: West Virginia evened out the solo material representation. They set off the big confetti canon again during the guitar solo at the end of Damn Good Times. Then they had a big debate about when in the solo it should have been set off and where on stage it should be placed to get more of the confetti into the audience and less on the stage. Flans thought closer to the edge and Danny suggested on top of the speaker. Linnell said they don't actually talk outside a show so they have to have all their discussions on stage which prompted Flans to say "welcome to our production rehearsal." Don't Let's Start followed. Dan Miller: Awesome as usual. Linnell and Ralph both had their clarinets for Cowtown, which Flans said was the first song they had even played as a band. Ralph switched to sax part way through. Marty Beller: Introduce the band signaled we were close to the end. This show went by so fast. I am so glad I have 14 to look forward to :-) Danny Weinkauf: They closed with Istanbul. Ralph did the intro on clarinet but his mic fell off the clarinet and he attempted to hum a few bars while he put it back on. It was a pretty short solo and BlueCanary missed Dan's guitar intro. For the outro Ralph went nuts lying on his back in the confetti pile on stage and playing sax while kicking his legs around. He had a little trouble getting up though. John Flansburgh: They took a long break before they encore. My hands were going numb from pounding on the stage. They started the encore with Alphabet of Nations. BlueCanary could see Dan's setlist upside down and had been trying to figure out what was written under Alphabet with some question marks but I was indicating to everyone on stage to skip the song so it didn't matter (it was See the Constellation that they skipped, written as Contellation on the setlist). They moved on to The Mesopotamians. John Linnell: For the second encore they did Dead. Then Flans discussed their free podcast and how they had done Cast Your Pod to the Wind which was the best of the free stuff which was in fact so good that you now have to pay for it. They did We Live In A Dump off that collection. Ralph Carney: At some point during the encore Flans commented on how long it had been since they had played in Ithaca and blamed the chicken fighting (a girl had gotten up on someone's shoulders in the crowd). Dan Miller: They closed with Ana Ng. We waited around for a while afterwards and eventually got Marty's setlist from the electric kit as well as a poster I found on the floor.Someone was sitting ontop of a chair in the front row while we were waiting (and collecting confetti) and the left half of the front row fell backwards. It was supposed to collapse but still, yikes!